How Telegram Offers Way Around Public Records Laws

Here’s a new twist on governments’ tussles with technology companies over privacy: San Francisco legislators are using the ephemeral messaging app Telegram, which could allow them to sidestep public record disclosure laws.

Several elected members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors are active users of the app, along with their advisors and aides, according to multiple government workers and a scan of the app itself. Telegram users can choose to engage in encrypted “secret chats” and make messages “self destruct” on the devices of both the sender and receiver.

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ExclusiveHow Telegram Offers Way Around Public Records Laws

San Francisco’s public records law doesn’t address new forms of electronic communication like encrypted or ephemeral messaging apps, but it “has become an ongoing topic of discussion” on the Board of Supervisors’ Sunshine Ordinance Task Force.